Sauteed Kale with Balsamic and Bacon

AKA, "My New Favorite Way to Eat Kale."

Well, hello there!  Things have kind of reached a fever-pitch at home, and I'm currently a chaotic mix of crazed cleaning frenzy and trying to find my inner piece.  I'll let you guess which is winning?

Really, tho, I'm getting surgery this Friday to remove a fibroid, and it's got me in a bit of a tailspin.  I've never had surgery before - other than getting my wisdom teeth removed - so I'm trying to prepare myself, but really, I'm very nervous about the whole thing.  So, I'm feeling more than a little spastic and unsettled and of course, I most likely won't be able to blog recipes for a few weeks.  (But you can bet that I'll have worn holes in the pages of my Food Network magazine while I'm forced to be way less mobile than I'm used to.)

Easter Dinner Ideas Roundup

Just wanted to drop in to give you a few ideas for your Easter dinner this weekend.  I'd completely forgotten about the Glazed Carrots and Charred Green Beans recipes below, so now I'm all excited to make them!!

Happy Easter*!



* Please, please, please eat a huge pile of candy for me this weekend!  I put myself on a diet without even thinking about all the Easter candy and desserts I'll be drooling over for the next few days.  Sunday will be a cheat day for me and we're not even going to talk about all of the Peeps I'll consume that day.

         

Apricot Glazed Carrots

Charred Green Beans

Roasted Asparagus with Balsamic Browned Butter Sauce

Apple Vinaigrette Salad Dressing

Bourbon Gingersnap Ham

Creamy Lemony Blueberry Pie

Bourbon Gingersnap Ham (Alton Brown's City Ham)

Easter Ham!  They're plastered all over the grocery ads and commercials right now, but you weren't quite sure what you'd do with one this year.  Right?  How about something a little different, but a lot delicious?  And easy, to boot?

Enter Alton Brown's "City Ham."  This recipe has been floating around in my head for - I kid you not - at least 7 years.  And I finally just got around to making it!  I'm not sure why on earth I stalled in making it; it's awesome stuff.  Bo even declared it the best ham he's ever had.  And I have to say, I loved that it was easy to make and didn't involve any guesswork.  But that's what's wonderful about Alton Brown's recipes; they are science-y and detailed and easy to follow.

Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing

Hey, look.  Yet another salad dressing recipe.  (Here's one and another and another and another and another and three more.)  But the thing is, I eat a lot of salad.  For a while there, I was packing some kind of huge salad in my lunch every day.  So you can bet that I quickly grow tired of the same ingredients and the same dressings.  Add to that the fact that bought salad dressing is so iffy on flavor, and buying a whole bottle of something new is an expensive taste-test.

Irish Grandmother's Shepherd's Pie

Did I tell you that Bo's mom is from Ireland?  As in, she still has a bit of her accent, even though she's lived in the States for fifty years.  So, of course, I asked her to make something festive, now that she's living with us!

Over the years, Bo has asked me to make him Shepherd's Pie because he loves it.  I'd never even tasted it, so when I went digging for recipes, I had no idea which ingredients would make a recipe good or not.  So, I tried a few variations on him.  He claimed that they were good; I didn't care for any of it.

Fast forward to yesterday, and I asked his mom to make Shepherd's Pie the way she's always made it.

Berry Birthday Cake for Rory

Happy Birthday, Rory!  Yep.  Today she turns 9!*

Dark Chocolate Caramel Cake with Dark Chocolate Buttercream

Finally.  Finally, she posts the recipes for that birthday cake.  From last week.  It's starting to seem like I never post anything new around here, isn't it.  I usually do my recipe testing and experimenting on the weekends, but lately, it's feeling as if I'm just drained by the time the weekend rolls around.  No bueno!  And as you read this, I'm en route to Ohio for a work trip.  (Ohio in February?!  Brrrrrrr!)

But after all the sugar from last week, I'm feeling fairly icky and my teeth are pretty much screaming for me to lay off the sweets.  So my hope is that these cravings for all things green and crunchy will translate to finding some awesome recipes to post in the very near future.  Til then, I'm just reveling in the fact that I finally got all the sugar out of the house.  Go me!  (Or, don't go me.  Because you know how I ultimately got the sugar gone, don't you?)

Making a Wish

psst!

Today is my birthday(!).  And this is the cake I made.  Even though Bo will make me another cake today.  Yeah.  I get two.  It's pretty fantastic.

Smiles,



p.s.  Dark chocolate cake with caramel sauce and dark chocolate buttercream.  Recipe for this bad boy will get posted soon!  You need this in your life.

White Chocolate Chunk Krispies Treats for Valentine's Day

Are we surviving the week ok?  I thought I'd pop in with another dose of pink and red sweetness to help us find something to smile about.  Plus, who doesn't love fancied-up krispy treats?!

Things are still in transition on the home front, but actually going smoother than I was expecting.  Bo and I are going all dog whisperer on his mom's dogs, and I'm convinced that peace and quiet are just right over the horizon.  And once the weather gets a little nicer, we won't all be cooped up in the house all day.  (Am I bleeding optimism?  I hope so; I've really been working on it.)

So, anyway, to get sugar out of my house (because you know I always make creme brulee for Valentine's, and then it's all about birthday cake next week), I brought this batch of krispies treats in to work.  And immediately regretted having made only an 8" pan of them.  Word got out that I was sharing treats, and I only had enough for the desks closest to me.  Whoops!!  Maybe I'll earn back the office love by bringing in leftover birthday cake next week.  Speaking of cake (I'm incapable of focus this morning) - I've decided that this year's fancy birthday cake will be chocolate.  With caramel sauce between layers.  And covered in the most perfect homestyle chocolate buttercream.  I. Cannot. Wait.!!!

Strawberries and Cream Valentine Tarts

Aren't these little guys just too adorable?  When my girlfriend came over on Saturday, we dreamed up this delicious little dessert, and I'm so excited to share the recipe with you!

I didn't get a chance to write this up until just now because I've been fairly preoccupied this week, with Bo's mom and her little dogs arriving on Monday afternoon.  It's actually been a fairly smooth transition so far, but I haven't had a roommate in such a long time, that it's going to take some adjusting for us all.  But, I'll admit to playing dirty - I whipped up this recipe for her on Tuesday evening.  Major points right off the bat! :)

Roundup of Super Bowl Recipes

I just wanted to give ya a little collection of Super Bowl recipe ideas (most are healthy, but some are not).  I'm spending my weekend doing very anti-football types of things.  Tomorrow, my girlfriend is coming over to play with glitter and sugar (you think I'm kidding, but I so am not), and then on Sunday, I'm taking Rory running before I tackle some cleaning projects around the house.  Bo's mom is coming to live with us, so I'm aiming to have the house spotless before she gets here on Monday.  So, that doesn't leave a whole lot of room for football watching!

What are you all doing this weekend?  Anything out of the ordinary?  And - the better question - what's on your menus for Sunday??

Score!

Healthy Super Bowl: Hot Wing Hummus and Pizza Hummus

I got really fed up with Pinterest the other day.  Sometimes, I swear, my feed is strictly cheese and donuts.  Which - don't get me wrong - are delicious (but maybe not together).  But when I'm trying to eat healthy and make a concerted effort to increase the amount of veggies in my diet, Pinterest can be the opposite of helpful.  So I dug up an old issue of the Food Network magazine, and whipped up these hummus recipes to share with you.

If you're making snacks for a Super Bowl party this weekend, these recipes are deliciously healthy alternatives to dips laden with cheese and sour cream.  They're great served with pita chips, but you can give your health a yummy boost by serving these dips with chopped veggies.  I luvvvv smearing hummus on cucumbers and bell peppers!  Both recipes below are full of flavor and quick and easy to whip up. 

Three Cheers for Healthy Snacks!

Healthier Broccoli Beef

Is it a happy Monday for you so far?  I super hope so.  After travelling last week to Kansas City and its 16 degree mornings, I'm definitely glad to be back here in the ATL, even if the weather can't make up its mind (very chilly weekend and then 70 degree prediction for tomorrow??).

Anyway, I wanted to share this quick weeknight recipe with you.  It's fantastic for getting loads of broccoli onto your plate, and like most Asian style cooking, it's pretty healthy - and tasty - all around.  I used bison in this recipe instead of beef because it was on sale and I just couldn't pass up all those omegas and lean, free range goodness.  This recipe would also work fantastically for venison if you've got that in your freezer.   It's quick to make, uses only one pan and is full of flavor.  Make a little extra to pack in your lunch the next day, and you'll be really glad you did.  I served this over steamed brown rice, but you can pair it with any carb you like best, or none at all.

I Heart Broccoli,

Cuban Black Bean Soup

Hurrah, more soup!  This time of year just seems to be the perfect time to whip up all the amazing soup recipes I keep seeing out on the interwebs.  This one caught my eye because it's hearty enough that Bo doesn't grimace over the lack of meat.  But it's also dirt cheap to put together a huge pot of it.  Win win, am I right?

And once you get the black beans set to soaking, this soup comes together in no time at all.  It's fabulous to slow cook on a Sunday afternoon.  The bonus is that with all the leftovers, you'll have an easy lunch to pack with you all week.

Chicken Noodle Soup

I just watched a thing on the news tonight that said that 70% of the people you hear coughing actually have the flu.  YIKES.  Knock on wood, but I haven't been sick in ages.  The last nasty cold I had was three years ago.  This is partly because we don't yet have kids.  But also because at the first sign of feeling run-down, I'm running around with a bottle of Vitamin C, mugs of hot water with honey and lemon, and getting extra rest.